


Red Star Rising

by DonnaPaperheart



Series: The Weyrs of Westeros [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Pern Fusion, Alternate Universe - Pernese Dragons, F/F, F/M, Female Jon Snow, Impression (Dragonriders of Pern), M/M, Mating Flight (Dragonriders of Pern), Multi, Not Raised in Winterfell, Original Character(s), Original Dragon Characters - Freeform, Politics, R Plus L Equals J, Sansa can hear all dragons, Threadfall (Dragonriders of Pern)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 07:22:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20060194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DonnaPaperheart/pseuds/DonnaPaperheart
Summary: The Red Star draws ever nearer to Westeros heralding the return of thread after the Long Interval. With dragons on the verge of extinction and only a few bronze riders concerned with the coming of Thread the order from the King to hold a Conclave and redistribute draconic strength launches a deadly power struggle between the weyrleaders and the lords of the Seven Kingdoms.





	Red Star Rising

The light was fading to shades of grey and purple with the dusk when Will took the lift to the top of the Wall. There were a couple bags of grit standing ready to seed the patchy sheets of slick ice in the less trafficked areas which meant that neither the lordling nor even Gared had mustered up the common courtesy to assist a brother in not slipping and falling to his death.

Will snorted to himself rolling a stiff muscle in his neck, like he’d really expected any different. At least Holban could be counted on to do his chores and Will would likely have enough wood for doing the job by torchlight.

He picked out a couple of dangerous patches in the fading light and broke them up enough with his cleats and a few handfuls of grit before heading up the well-worn track to the guardroom above the gate.

Gared was there as was Ser Waymar Royce.

They were arguing, of course. There was hardly a time when they weren’t arguing.

Gared, a veteran of the Wall, didn’t like Royce’s attitude and really didn’t like that he’d been given a command fresh out of training.

Will had to agree.

Everyone knew that Royce had expected to be a dragonrider. His father was Y’hon of Skysweyr, both of his brothers rode bronzes and if Skysweyr ever got a new queen his sister Ysilla would be first on the hatching sands.

Gossip in the lower halls had it that Royce had been a true weyrbrat, had stood for every clutch laid on Skysweyr sands since he was ten turns old, few as they’d been. When he’d turned eighteen though they’d made him leave the weyr and squire for his uncle, Lord of Runestone, who’d eventually decided the lad needed new purpose and Runestone needed him out of their hair. So, he’d sent him north to kill wildlings and babysit the starstones.

He’d been good enough to knight before the Watch had got their paws on him but he had a dragonrider’s learned arrogance and the men didn’t like the way he looked down his nose. Gared especially.

Gared always had a lot to say about the lordling when he was in his cups, all of it funny but none of it flattering. Royce, though, he held himself aloof from the other men, looked down on those under his command, his brothers, whether for their past or their upbringing or their less-than-good looks. It had got so bad that even his former bunkmates didn’t want anything to do with him.

Will let himself into the guardroom and poured himself a cup of _klah_ from the pot over the fire. If the two hotheads weren’t ready to be on their way Will was in no hurry to take over their shift. The Wall might have been weeping but it was still cold enough to shrivel a man’s balls and Maester Aemon was predicting a snow squall would hit sometime in the night.

He listened with half an ear to the argument as he settled in with his _klah_ and a biscuit.

“Will you just listen to me and do your sharding duty you wherry-brained old shoe string!” Royce bellowed finally, slamming his hands down on the sturdy ironwood table hard enough to rattle Will’s cup.

Gared had a mean look in his eyes and a hand on the sweat stained pommel of his short-sword.

“Listen here you uppity little pissant,” he hissed, grabbing Royce by the arm and shoving him up against the nearest wall. “I don’t care who your daddy is or what you learned at your dam’s tit, but in case you haven’t noticed there hasn’t been threadfall in two hundred years!”

“Then I’m sure in all your infinite wisdom, Gared, realize that we’re long overdue for a Pass!” sneered Royce.

His hand had dropped to the jeweled pommel of his own castle-forged longsword with it’s intricate mastersmith mark, but Will wouldn’t give an iron bob for his life is Gared drew out his blade.

“Overdue,” spat Gared. “The only thing we’re overdue for is burning down this haunted fekking forest and all the wildlings in it. That’s your duty, boy! Be glad you were spared impression because the time of the dragons is over, and every holder from here to Dorne knows it. Soon enough the lords and ladies in their fancy halls will recognize that thread hasn’t fallen because there is no more thread. And if there’s no more thread there’s no need to support leeching fekking dragonriders.”

“You don’t know of what you speak,” Royce said.

His anger had boiled down to a steady simmer, like a hot-spring under a sheet of ice, and he shoved a way from Gared hard enough to see the older watchman stumbling.

“The Red Star creeps closer to the eye in eye rock. The Pass approaches. Thread will fall within the year.”

Something about the chill, sure tone of his voice made Will look up from his _klah_ and blurt: “How can you know?”

Royce gave him a look of such utter condescension that Will immediately regretted opening his mouth.

“Skysweyr knows it’s duty to Westeros. The old teaching songs are sung to every weyrbrat from the cradle: ‘_When finger points to eye blood-red // alert the weyrs_ _to sear the thread_’. Why do you think this watchpost even exists, fools? It’s not to rout wildling savages that’s for certain.”

He turned on his heel then and strode out into the night.

“Where are you going, boy!” bellowed Gared.

“To do my duty, watchman!” Royce called back, already halfway to the lift. “Alert the weyr.”

Will turned to Gared to see how he was taking that, and found that the older watchman was slumped tiredly against the doorframe watching Royce walk away with something like pity in his face.

“Fekking boyo,” he sighed. “He’s going to get his wherry-neck rung by Old Bear and for what?”

“It almost sounded like you cared just then, Gared,” Will teased.

Gared made a derisive grunt low in his throat.

“I could give a fekking hair on a rat’s ass what that arrogant little tit gets himself into. Fekking weyrbrats, threads haven’t fallen in three full intervals, dragons are as rare as direwolves and they’ll still argue about their duty to Westeros like it means a damn thing.”

Will nodded a bit a took a long sip of his _klah_, letting the heat warm his bones and the stim sharpen his mind for a moment.

“What if he’s right?” he asked, less delicate than he’d planned.

Gared laughed, low and bitter.

“If thread falls not only will I volunteer to shovel the dragonshit myself but I’ll get on my knees and kiss the lordlings shiny tannerhall boots.”

“Heard and witnessed!” Will said cheerily.

Gared looked startled for a moment and then he laughed, scrubbing his gloved hands over his rough-hewn face.

“I shouldn’t let him rile me so, shells know I’m to old for it,” he shook his head ruefully. “If I ever needed to get on my knees for that lordling I’d have to throw myself off the Wall to escape the shame.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I re-read some of my favourite Pern fics and thought to myself, it's been forever since you tried a crossover or wrote about Pern...
> 
> Anyway let me know what you guys think!


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